December 15/06 6:34 am - Victoria 'New School' Cycling League in 2007

Posted by Editoress on 12/15/06

Watch for the 'New School', School Cycling League in 2007Courtesy Lister Farrar

A community cycling group was given the go ahead Wednesday to develop a new look for the Victoria school cycling league for 2007 and to recruit coaches for schools wanting help. Steve Lund, Chrissy de Jonge, Kas Karim and Lister Farrar of the group attended a meeting of the Lower Vancouver Island School Sports cycling league yesterday afternoon, and pitched some ideas for different events and their offer to help.

LISS athletic coordinator Heather Lederis is cautiously optimistic. "The community help is great, but we need teachers to step up and be a sponsor. With this new help, the School Volunteers' work load will be reduced. Coaching and event management help from the community will make the job much easier. But I think this is the right direction, including non-race and modified event formats."

Steve Lund (Cycling BC regional coach), Rupert Gadd (teacher at Dunsmuir), Lister Farrar (cyclist and founder of the Bastion Square Cycling Grand Prix) and others from the group will draft a new event schedule to be circulated before Christmas. The draft league schedule will be reviewed by school athletic directors January 22.

Outgoing league commissioner Kas Karim welcomed the changes. "We suspected the long, hard cross country races may have been turning off newcomers. But we just didnÃ¢â‚¬Å¡t have the expertise or time to dream up new events. Cross country was what we knew, what everyone did in the beginning of mountain biking, and that was enough then. This move will rejuvenate the league by adapting to kids interests and finding new ways of helping students enjoy riding more."

Ideas discussed at the meeting include starting the season with non-competitive "try-it" type events where new riders can try different skills and discipline without the pressure of competition, followed by a series of events with competition, but with alternative clinics and rides on site. Events could include short track cross country races, judged skills competitions, Super D (longer downhill events selected for low risk), relays teaming climbers and down hillers, velodrome and bmx racing.